Microsoft Has Officially Ended Office Support for Mac 2011
Mac 2011 was released almost seven years ago and it appears that its days are finally over. Microsoft made this very clear recently when it finally dropped support for this software suite. However, the seven-year period is longer than the usual one that takes around five years. This means that PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Word and Lync won’t receive any kind of updates in the future.
Now Microsoft officially announced the end of support a while ago. “All applications in the Office for Mac 2011 suite* are reaching end of support on October 10th, 2017. As a reminder, after that date there will be no new security updates, non-security updates, free or paid assisted support options or technical content updates. Refer to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle for more information,” their official website wrote.
It is best to upgrade your Office pack in order to keep your device and your files safe. Also, it is better to use Office 2016 since it is fully supported on macOS High Sierra.
The 2011 pack was not tested on High Sierra
Not only that Microsoft ended support for these programs, but it appears that the company did not even test them. “Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Lync have not been tested on macOS 10.13 High Sierra, and no formal support for this configuration will be provided,” Microsoft stated back then.
However, some users reported that they are running High Sierra and Office 2011 works just as well on their Mac devices. In fact, some even added that the 2011 Office works better for them and it takes less storage than the 2016 package. However, we do not recommend you to use anything that cannot receive security updates, since you may expose your device to various threats.
“However, we do not recommend you to use anything that cannot receive security updates, since you may expose your device to various threats.”
Understood, but Microsoft also wants people to upgrade to Office 2016 — and pay an *annual* subscription cost (!). They are not innocent bystanders.
We won’t be upgrading because that subscription is far too costly and invasive.
Much better to keep using Word, Excel 2011 — or, if one is worried about Security (overblown concern) — switch to Apple’s Pages & Numbers or one of the free or low-cost Office clones.
I suppose there are VERY MANY people who will do just fine with Pages/Numbers, but for those with years of experience in eg, Excel, switching could also be an expense. Not losing a couple hours of my time in retraining myself, more than pays the cost of the new Office.
At best, the idea that security is an overblown concern is naïve. Word macro infected emails are legion and have caused countless people grief.
My rule of thumb has long been that if my work relies on a software package, be sure to get a regular license and as much service/support as I need. Excel crossed that threshold decades ago. People who occasionally want to make lists & traditional spreadsheets might do just fine without it but using a bastard version is kind of the worst of both.